Cancer research gets little from NFL's "pink" affiliation

The National Football League (NFL) is covered with pink these days — on the cheerleaders, on the players, on the refs. It's supposedly for cancer research.

But ESPN's Darren Rovell figured that only 8 percent of the money spent on pink items goes for cancer research. Says the publication Business Insider, summing up Rovell's research, "For every $100 in pink merchandise sold, $12.50 goes to the NFL. Of that, $11.25 goes to the American Cancer Society and the NFL keeps the rest. The remaining money is then divided up by the company that makes the merchandise (37.5%) and the company that sells the merchandise (50%), which is often the NFL and the individual teams."

Figuring that 71.2% of money the American Cancer Society receives goes to research, one realizes that only 8.01% of money spent on that pink merchandise goes to research.

The NFL says it will donate $1 million per year to the society in the first three years of the program.